Oscars Helping Many Web Sites Lure Movie Fans.Welcome to O2K O2K Office 2000 (Microsoft) -- as in Oscar 2000. So say the minds behind the Hollywood Stock Exchange, the Santa Monica-based entertainment site that runs a virtual stock market where people can use $2 million in funny money to buy and sell shares of their favorite stars. Minutes after the Academy Award nominations were announced last week, entertainment-related Web sites like HSX HSX Hollywood Stock Exchange HSX Helicopter, ASW, Future Version HSX Horizontal Surface Extensometer were accessed by millions of movie fans who jumped online to get the scoop. And as more entertainment-obsessed people realize the wealth of information available on the Internet, 2000 will truly be the year Oscar overwhelms online. "Last year was the first big year and this year is going to be bigger," said Joe Butt, an analyst with Forrester Research Forrester Research is an independent technology and market research company that provides its clients with advice about technology's impact on business and consumers. Corporate facts
The competition among the sites to gain eyeballs is fierce - after all, the number of surfers who come to a given site serve to generate ad revenue. For e-commerce sites, the crunch time is the holiday season. For entertainment sites, it's the period between Feb. 15 and the Oscar aftermath coverage on March 27. Since the Hollywood Stock Exchange posted its Oscar-specific board, the volume of trade has been up by about 60 percent, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Douglas Scott, senior vice president of product development on the site. The day after the nominations were announced, there were approximately 1.8 billion shares traded. "It's the Super Bowl of Hollywood," Scott said. "As soon as we put up the Oscar securities, we reached a record trading volume Trading volume The number of shares transacted every day. As there is a seller for every buyer, one can think of the trading volume as half of the number of shares transacted. That is, if A sells 100 shares to B, the volume is 100 shares. ." The banner ads now running on the sites doing Oscar coverage are clearly keyed to the movie-going, Web-savvy, 18-to-34-year-old demographic. Sponsors for E! Online's coverage include Women.com and Saturn, while Mr. Showbiz has banners from Pets.com. Jennifer Martel, traffic coordinator for E! Online's advertising department, said that each sponsor for the Web site's Oscar coverage paid between $60,000 to $70,000 for the one-month commitment. In exchange, the sponsors get a tag line tag line also tag·line n. 1. An ending line, as in a play or joke, that makes a point. 2. An often repeated phrase associated with an individual, organization, or commercial product; a slogan. Noun 1. on each page with Oscar material, in addition to banner ads and smaller "hot corners." All total, Martel said, the site should bring in $250,000 for its Academy Awards content. In the month of January, E! Online had just over 3 million users, compared to 1.8 million for Hollywood.com and 955,000 for Mr. Showbiz, according to PC Data, which tracks the number of users each site gets. "All of these numbers will go up during the awards season," said Cameron Meierhoefer, an analyst with PC Data. Santa Monica-based Hollywood.com promises curtain-to-curtain coverage of the event, including the usually overlooked technical awards and the nominees' luncheon. Mr. Showbiz, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Noun 1. Walt Disney - United States film maker who pioneered animated cartoons and created such characters as Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck; founded Disneyland (1901-1966) Disney, Walter Elias Disney Co.'s Go Network, offers extensive bios of all the nominated actors, reviews of all the nominated films, quizzes and polls. (In the "Who got robbed?" poll, Jim Carrey “James Carrey” redirects here. For the murder conspirator, see James Carey. James Eugene Carrey (born January 17, 1962) is a Canadian actor and comedian. has a substantial lead, with 40.3 percent.) Also included is a link to Oscar.com, the official site for the Academy Awards, which is being shown on ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. , another member of the Disney family. To drive traffic to its Oscar.com site, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences plugs the Web address in every ad for the awards show. "The television show and the Web site will cross-promote each other," said Aram Sinnerzh, an analyst at Jupiter Communications. 'That, and the fact that there are more people on the Internet, means the (online) audience can only grow larger and larger." The Oscar-Night Sites Three of most popular Web addresses for everything related to the Academy Awards. Oscar.com (www.oscar.com): The official site for the Academy Awards, it has extensive background on the Oscars and bios of the behind-the-scenes players. The truly committed can sign up for e-mail updates on news about the show. E! Online (www.eonline.com): El Online is taking on the Oscars with its typical sassy sas·sy 1 adj. sas·si·er, sas·si·est 1. Rude and disrespectful; impudent. 2. Lively and spirited; jaunty. 3. Stylish; chic: a sassy little hat. fervor. Message boards onthe nominations are already replete with topics like "The Jilted jilt tr.v. jilt·ed, jilt·ing, jilts To deceive or drop (a lover) suddenly or callously. n. One who discards a lover. Mr. Ripley" and "John Cusack!!! What about John Cusack?" Hollywood Stock Exchange (www.hsx.com): Just in time for the Academy Awards, the Hol lywood Stack Exchange has added a board where daytraders of the fantasy variety can invest in the nominated films, actors directors and screenplays. |
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